I find it annoying when people say that things like Rotom are legends but they are not. I made this question because I want to know exactly what distinguish Legends from Non-legends. I know that no legend can Evolve or have pre-evolved forms. No legendary Pokemon can breed and make more of itself(Manaphy can breed but it breeds and makes Phione not Manaphy). No legendary has a base stat below 580(except for Phione at 480 but Phione is like a baby legend). All legendaries aside from Manaphy have had a premier movie(The Unova Legends haven't been around long enough to tell though). Most legends have been referred to as legends when seen in anime. Are there any more things that distinguish Legends from Non-legends? Why do people think that Rotom, Zoroark, Spiritomb, and Lucario are legends?

2 Answers

There isn't a clear-cut definition of a legendary, some do consider event pokemon legendary. But most people use these prerequisites:

Available only once per save file.

Unable to breed, with the exception of Manaphy.

High stats, though "high" is relative, as a lot of them are all over the place.

Unable to evolve

Many appear either at the beginning (victini) or end of the regional pokedex.

Other people might have other rules that define them. Game Freak hasn't official named a list of pokemon as such, so the actual definition is up for debate. Remember that terms like legendary or pseudo legendary aren't official terms. They refer to pokemon as legendary in the games, it doesn't necessarily make a pokemon a "legendary" in the way gamers use it. Some might define a legendary as one that has had a major movie, explaining ones like Lucario and Zoroark, others might define them as they are in the anime (which even then would contradict other rules in place, since there are multiple legendary pokemon, like the two Lugia, or multiple Latios and Latias, meaning that they are capable of having multiple legendaries, breaking a few of the original rules in place for a "legendary) Since the games and the anime are both official Game Freak Material, many consider it fair game. Some consider legendary pokemon exceedingly rare pokemon, so much so that people tell tales of their encounters with said pokemon. This would help explain Rotom and Spiritomb. Personally, I don't really care since it's a game, but it's still a pretty hot pokemon topic.

Most of them have a base stats of 600 or higher, however this is not always true (i.e the Legendary Birds)

Legendary Pokemon usually only have 1 member of their species, as such Pokemon like Rotom, Spiritomb, Salamence, Tyranitar, Dragonite, Hydregion and Metagross could be called Psuedo Legendary, because they are rare and powerful like Legendaries but usually don't fulfill certain traits.

in Japan, Legendary Pokemon are divided into 3 types.
Legendary = These Pokemon have story's or myths attached to them and are very recognizable, examples include, Groudon, Kyogre, Latias and Latios and others

Illusionary = Pokemon that are so rare or aren't even heard of that some people question their existence, Pokemon that fall into this category would be Deoxys, Mew and Metwo as well as few others like Celebi

Mythical = This describes Pokemon that are so rare and so powerful they could be described as Gods and are generally considered not to be real, this would fall under Arceus, Dialga, Palkia etc.

Furthermore... some non-legendary Pokemon may have historic pasts or important heritages which could be described as a Legend, for example, there is a Legend that states that Onix created their rock bodies by smashing cliffs and being buried by the rubble to protect them selves from Pidgeot, but Onix is not a Legendary Pokemon, this is a unique story attached to it. Lucario are often said to be Guardians sent down by Arceus because of their noble ways..also some people may love Pokemon so that they end up calling them Legendary.